Subsídios para a gestão do Jardim Botânico Adolpho Ducke de Manaus

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to present subsidies that will guide the management of the Adolpho Ducke Botanical Garden of Manaus, based on the perception, the demands and expectations through a survey of information from the different actors related to the Garden, seeking to ensure the effective range of its goals, as well as institutional strengthening, pondering its peculiar characteristics and importance in the Amazonian context, and considering the management changes with the incorporation of a new collaborating institution. The main question of this study is how the Botanical Garden should be managed, in order to meet the expectations and demands of its users. This should also lead to a debate: does the management attend its demands and expectations? To achieve the objectives, three main goals were established, which should assist in establishing a better management of the Botanical Garden Manaus. The first objective involves performing a mapping of social and institutional relationships established and maintained by the Botanical Garden of Manaus since its inception. The second seeks to identify the perceptions, demands/expectations, organized by interest group, of the agents related to the Botanical Garden of Manaus. Third, to identify what other management instruments the Brazilian Botanical Gardens and other protected areas of Manaus are using, as well as its main activities and management programs. The creation of the Botanical Garden of Manaus aimed initially to look for alternatives to contain the advance of disorderly occupation and protect the forests of the Ducke Reserve, through public education and flora conservation. Currently, visitors have established more permanent relationships, returning again and again, and also encouraging known people to visit, using the space as a point of leisure. Besides offering tourists a glimpse of what is the typical Amazonian forest, the Garden has been shown as an ideal place for schools to bring young people the knowledge about the flora and fauna of the region through direct contact with nature. Most visitors are children and young people from public educational institutions and private schools, and its role is to provide a direct contact with the reality environmental and awareness of the importance of the environment conservation, encouraging people towards the conservation of natural resources. Since its inception, its management is made through a co-management model, or participative management, involving the National Institute of Amazonian Research - INPA and the Municipality of Manaus, through the Municipal Secretary of Environment and Sustainability SEMMAS, and most recently a third partner was inserted to manage the Botanical Garden, the Museum of the Amazon - MUSA. Each botanical garden is unique and has a different purpose and organizational structure. Most are administered by a public or private institution, or even mixed capital, however, regardless of its form of management, to achieve its goals the botanical gardens need to be supported by management tools to guide the actions to be implemented, and translate the expectations and needs of its visitors in programs and projects. Currently, the document that guides the management of the Botanical Garden of Manaus is its bylaws, which establishes its mission, objectives and management structure, being a first guideline that instructs its objectives and basic management structure, but there is still lack of an instrument that can include a future planning. A strategic planning can avoid the discontinuity of actions due to policy changes or turnover of technical staff. In addition, it helps employees to incorporate its planning and goals and creates a long-term vision widespread and embedded among the institutions and their employees, so all the parts involved have a common vision of future.